Just been sent a fascinating US Govt telegram shedding light on Washington's attitude to territorial claims in the South China Sea during the 1956 episode that really restarted the whole contest. (I haven't seen the original piece of paper, just a scan.) Thread...

2. This was triggered by the Philippine entrepreneur Tomas Cloma who, in 1956, claimed most of the Spratly Islands for himself as his own personal country called 'Freedomland'. This upset everyone else - both Chinas, Vietnam and even his own government (story is in my SCS book)

In response, the Republic of China (Taiwan) government sent some navy ships to evict Cloma's brother and supporters from the huts they had erected on Itu Aba (Taiping Island) and some other features. They forced Cloma's brother to sign a paper saying he wouldn't come back.

4. Meanwhile, the ROC, the PRC and the Republic of Vietnam (South Vietnam) all started shouting about their own territorial claims. (France had sent an expedition to Itu Aba in October 1946 to re-claim it after WW2. The ROC had claimed it for the first time two months later)

5. From the telegram it looks like the Vietnamese were intending to send their own naval ships to contest the ROC claim on Itu Aba. The US government absolutely did not want a fracture in the anti-communist front in the middle of the 1950s over a pathetic rock

6. The telegram is warning that the Government of the Republic of China (GRC) would use force against the Vietnamese if they tried to land on any of the 'Spratleys' (sic)

7. So, presumably, after this telegram is sent, US diplomats in Saigon lean heavily on the Vietnamese to dissuade them from taking any action to firm up their territorial claim in the Spratlys. Thus it looks like the US is taking sides with the ROC on the question of sovereignty

8. When, in fact they're more worried about maintaining an anti-communist front.

9. Instead, the Taiwan embassy tries to get everyone to focus on the Paracels where there had been recent occupations of some of the eastern reefs by PRC forces, despite the presence of Vietnamese in the western reefs

10. There may have been a pre-disposition among US officials to regard the Chinese claim as stronger (further research required...) but in this episode it's all about the geopolitics. END